Teardrops On The Dance Floor: The 405 meets Foxes

Heartbreak has been the catalyst behind the new music that’s served as an outlet for the UK pop siren’s emotional release, although that was never the plan. Her recent therapeutic endeavor marks a new creative path for the singer, who’s come out on the other side of the emotional raincloud with her head held high and an album she’s proud of.

I'm greeted with an enormous smile on a petite frame as Foxes welcomes me into her spacious trailer backstage Provinssi Festival in Seinäjoki, Finland where we crash on the hideous old sofa inside like long-time friends, laughing about the rainy weather and what festival season has done to our footwear. Foxes is giddy off festival vibes and pre-performance vigour, as she's just about to hit to stage to perform her energetic pop-infused set, which includes her recently-released single 'Body Talk' off her upcoming sophomore album, slated to drop later this year.

Heartbreak has been the catalyst behind the new music that's served as an outlet for the UK pop siren's emotional release, although that was never the plan. Her recent therapeutic endeavor marks a new creative path for the singer, who's come out on the other side of the emotional raincloud with her head held high and an album she's proud of.

So 'Body Talk,' the first single off your upcoming album, why did you chose that as your lead in?

The album was a process of the way I was feeling. Tracks were coming out in an order, a little bit. 'Body Talk' was kind of one of the first and I felt like I wanted to start it where I started writing the album so it could kind of, in a way, tell a story. But yeah, also because the song definitely makes sense for me personally now. It's an upbeat track and it's summer. It's a feel-good song.

The video recently dropped as well. So, what was your idea behind the aesthetic for that?

It definitely has an '80s feel to it. I kind of have some mad '80s hair going on. Really, I'm in a petrol station with '80s hair, dancing. But, generally, there's kind of like a Groundhogs Day feeling to the track and in my head, it was like, I was kind of going around the same scenario. And the petrol station, is kind of like a stop gap. It's almost like you arrive there and you just don't leave and you're trying to get out of this state of mind. I guess it just keeps happening and the idea is that I keep arriving there and I'm like, when am I going to leave this? And then I eventually kind of do, so at the end, it's like breaking out of something.

Your visuals are super important to your overall creative package, so do those ideas come ultra-organically?

They do. Whenever I'm writing a song, I always have it visually there. Every song I've written, I've pretty much known what the video was going to be like. With this, I kind of let the song speak for itself. I wasn't worried about going too much down an '80s route. Especially because, it doesn't portray the album fully. This is the most '80s track there is from the album.

You mentioned before that you had been locked away creating music and working on your new project, so what was that process like creating the upcoming album?

It was really nice. I finished touring at the end of last year, I was with Pharrell touring for like seven weeks, which was amazing. And then I literally came off that and I was like, I know what I want to write. All I want to do is write my second album. So really, it was like five months that I've been writing the album. I have like two weeks left to finish the vocals back in London and then it's pretty much done. It happened quite smoothly and I was really happy about that. It was fun. I got to have so much creative control. I did on the first one too. But it's interesting, because I always wonder how much other artists are in the studio, because I swear that I'm in there too much. It's not a bad thing but I really was doing day shifts and night shifts. But it's great and I'm really happy with what's come out of it. Now it's just nice to be out of the dark.

What creative and personal place were you in while you were creating what we'll be hearing on the upcoming release?

It was interesting really, because it fell smack dab in the middle of breaking up with someone, which was quite a crap time. But what was nice was, I did get to write a lot of things that helped me through that and music did come quicker, because I felt like I was using it as therapy. It was strange and I had never really used music as that in that sort of time before. But, in my head, I think that it was a nice way to move on and take control, so the album has that feeling. I felt like I was growing up a lot and I was kind of making a statement to myself where I said that I was just going to go into the studio and it's going to take my mind off things. And it worked.

You probably grew so much as an artist coming into that new creative experience.

Yeah, I always said to myself that I would never write about a guy or breakups in general so it was nice to explore that. Everybody goes through that stuff and I quite like to write music that people can relate to and I didn't want to write an album of me just crying. I wanted to write something that would make people feel happier or stronger. The lyrics might be sad but sonically, the music is kind of like, get on with it.

So you can dance your tears away.

Exactly. It's kind of teardrops on the dance floor.

Do you feel any pressure with the upcoming release - placed on you by yourself or by anyone else, as this is your sophomore release?

It's quite nice actually, because I feel like the first album, I didn't really feel pressure, because I just wanted to put an album out. I never really had any expectations and I'm always like that. If my mum bought it, I would be like "Oh Mum, you bought my album." I don't put too much pressure on myself when it comes to writing music, which I guess is a good thing.

I guess that's probably where the fun vibe comes from - it allows you to tap into that.

Yeah, I think so. Maybe I should put more pressure on myself.

Now that you're all set with the second release and you can prepare by performing and coming out to festivals, what are your current obsessions?

I'm always obsessed with food. I can't stop eating. I don't know if it's because we're on a bus and we just eat with not much else to do. I'm so obsessed with Game of Thrones. It's so dangerous. I think I'm in it. I'm on season three, so don't tell me anything. I literally think I own dragons in my day to day life. I get obsessed with things like that. At the moment, I'm just getting video ideas ready for the next videos and that kind of thing, so that's always really fun to do.

A year from now, you will have put your album out, so where do you see yourself next summer?

Right now, I have no idea. It would just be nice to be traveling the world again and touring the music. And eating.